Eve Opportunist: January 2010

Monday, January 25, 2010

Oh opportunity, is there anything so fickle?

Welcome to this special installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by myself, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to me. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

When you've been roaming New Eden as long as I have, it almost feels like home. That's how familiar it has become over the last 5 years. Not that I have done everything or touched every aspect of this most amazing of virtual world, far from it, but it just feels as though it's always been there. And always will be.

Whether you've logged into the game every day since its launch in 2003, or you've taken one or several sabbaticals from your capsuleer career, you've always come back to New Eden don't you. Why is that?

We know the EVE Online Community is unique in so many ways, and that EVE Online is like no other MMORPG out there. But what makes the game special for you?

What is it that makes this particular virtual world so enticing, so mysterious and so alluring that we keep coming back for more. Why is EVE one of the very few MMOs to see a continuous growth in its subscriber.

To put it simply: Why do you love EVE Online so much?

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Man either he's been reading my old posts or I just got lucky! But I plan on expanding on my previous post on this topic, my first post actually.

The name of my blog states it, but let me look into it more... Eve-Opportunist.

I have Opportunist defined above as well, but I think CCP Abraxas put it very well in "The Mercenaries (Part Three)"

"This, to him, was the Minmatar lot. You saw an opportunity, no matter how unorthodox, and you did something with it. You went for it."

How crazy that quote comes along just as I start writing this blog. To me this isn't just the Minmatar lot in eve this IS the spirit of "My Eve" that keeps me coming back. Before I focus on opportunity, let's look at the phrase "My Eve."

My Eve is the Eve Online that I play, and everyone in Eve can have their version to play. The miner, the industrialist on one side, the lowsec pirate and the nullsec pvper on the other and everywhere in between. Eve isn't a straight line with PVPer on one side and PVEer on the other. It is like a huge X,Y axis, with room for a Z and the elusive fourth dimension. Sure some people's Eve look similar, close even, but that is the framework of the game. It would be foolhardy to state any miner is like any other miner or any pvper is like any other... Alt's aside there are no two "my eve's" that are word for word the same story.

How much of that can be said for other MMO's? Wow comes to mind, WoW there has to be thousands of "heroes" completing the same quests, gaining the same professions(damn you mining), doing the same thing. Missions in eve may be repetitive, as mining can be, but ship fitting, order to engage, finding your path, skilling, scouting, learning, now THAT is the simple essence of Eve that makes it so addicting.

It is like this butteryfly effect video...

Every choice you make in Eve puts you down a different path. All the way down to two of the most basic parts of the game, meaning skills learnt/trained and modules fit on your ship. A friend of mine can't pilot anything larger than a frigate but has 8 mil sp in trade related skills and plays just to manipulate the market, that is his Eve. I have 256 sp in industry (mining 1) and 0 in trade, but can fly almost every combat ship in Eve. The nice thing in eve being that if we wanted to, he could do what I do now and I could do what he does, it would just take some more skills.

Back to opportunity:

Oh opportunity, is there anything so fickle?

Eve allows you, want you, to take every opportunity and really do something with them, going out finding a opportunity and exploiting it for its worth. There are no limitations set upon you, unless you do it yourself. Combat proficient pilots can become traders, traders can be miners, miners can be combat pilots. All it takes is different skills, a change in ships or fittings, and the opportunity to display those skills. No classes, no subsets, just players.

Like the Eve addage "Don't undock what you can't afford to lose."

When you undock in that shiny faction ship, you are giving others the opportunity to come out of the woodwork to kill it. Same when you undock in that noobship, though the threat may be slightly less!

Eve opportunity relies not only on the pilot but thousands of other pilots, all doing their part in this dance with death or life. The maker of the ship, the miner of the mats, the modules on the ship... And of course YOU, do you undock that Taranis or the Navy Comet, or a Imp. Navy Slicer or a Crusader? Daredevil? Megathron? Each provides different opportunity for you and for your opponents, and even your friends. And you never know what ones surround you or fight with you.

Opportunity here means the chance to get a few kills without dying yourself, the chance to run that mission faster than before, I guess you could distill opportunity down to "the chance" to do whatever you want. And Eve DELIVERS those chances, time and again. Sure you died this time, but tomorrow, you live, or maybe you die, or maybe everyone lives and the roid dies.

Those who are truly into eve cannot get bored here for just that reason. If one thing gets boring you just move onto something else, give it the chance to be your Eve for a while. When that gets old, you keep moving. By the time you "run out" of things to do, some of the old ones sound appealing again and you start the process over again... except for mining.......... ::smirk::

Add to that the people you meet, the conversations, the wars, and grudges. The playerbase is amazing, and rightly awarded for being so. Opinions differ, flames ensue, but when it comes down to it, the playerbase passion is to make the game better. We may not always see eye to eye with CCP, and especially not with each other but at least occasionally... you have moments in this game that make your heart beat fast, throat dry, fingers tremble and lips smile, or grimace.

Opportunity, that is what keeps ME coming back to Eve.

Here is the final list of other Blogs on this topic, crossposted from CK's blog

And two more who didn't make the deadline but are worth reading anyways!

He's got his hands full on this one! 56 entries is massive, nice work CK!

And here are the winners of the contest!

Congrats to you all! Very good entries.

Here are your 10 winners!

1st Prize - $100 in EVE Store merchandise: Wench with a Wrench
2nd Prize - $50 in EVE Store merchandise: Don't Fear the Mutant
3rd Prize- $25 in EVE Store merchandise: Into the unknown with gun and camera
4th Prize - $25 in EVE Store merchandise: Sered's Lives

And the following bloggers each win a 14 Day EVE Time Code:
FlashFresh
EVEOGANDA
Vive Virtual
Why do I love EVE Online
An Extremely Complicated Survival Machine
Ecliptic Rift

Very nice work!

My favorite was definately Flash's entry! FlashFresh

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

We will be victorious.

"Forty percent shields and falling! There won't be anything left of us after this pounding!" Timmons grabbed for his console as more rounds splashed near the battleship.

"Relax Timmons, this is a Dominix, not a damned Raven like you are used to, besides the boss knows what he's doing." Havens leaned back against his chair, strapped in, but yet barely able to feel the vibrations passing through the ship. Timmons grasped nervously at his console, watching as the Angels drew near, Angel fire raking the shields of the Dominix.

Both manned one of the three 720mm Artillery batteries. Timmons was pressed to the side in the backup controller, watching the seeming lazy loading crews lounge while the guns remained silent.

Despite Havens' size, nearly 2 and a half meters tall, pale and sickly skinny, his deft Sebiestor fingers kept the currently deactivated Artillery tracking perfectly on the approaching Angel frigates. Nudging the battery slightly to the left and then down, leading the advanced frigate awaiting the order to fire.

The red "FIRE" lamp lit the console, the only sound as the shell left the cannon was the slap click of the recoil and the bang of the spent charge ejecting into space. "Round 1 away! Gun bore clear, preparing to fire round two."

The round, already on it's way to the frigate, impacted just aft of the bridge of the frigate, the fusion blast consuming shield and armor in a devastating hit that left the frigate trailing debris. Main engine venting, the second shell caught the flailing frigate in the midst of a hasty evasive move, breaking the containment on the power supply, the frigate vanishing in a sharp implosion, gutting the ship from the inside, incinerating the threat in an instant.

Havens had the second frigate locked and engaged. It's shields were already failing, weakened by near misses from the other two gun crews. A single shot flew from Havens' artillery, taking the Angel frigate just above one of the loaded auto cannons. A ripple of secondary explosions tore along the side of the frigate before another shot could be fired.

Timmons uttered one word, "Wrecking." With the only threat to the drones gone, artillery was given no further firing orders and watched in mute boredom as the drone crews had their fun. Not even the massed fire from the remaining NPC's could breach the solid walls of armor on the Dominix.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

EBB14, Fyreite in 112

Welcome to the fourteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The first banter of 2010 comes to us from the EVE Blog Father, CrazyKinux himself, who asks the following: As we begin another year in New Eden, ask yourselves "What Now?" What will I attempt next? What haven't I done so far in EVE? Was it out fear, funds, or knowledge? Have I always wanted to start my own corporation, but have never dared doing so? Is there a fledging mercenary waiting to come out of its shell? Or maybe an Industrialist? What steps and objectives will I set myself to accomplish in order to reach my ultimate goal for this year? EVE is what you make of it. So, what is it going to be for you?

Wow, well isn't that a mouthful! I guess I will answer it like a few others have, by taking one question at a time!

"What Now?"

Keep fighting the good fight of course. With STIM, hanging out in Syndicate, getting called blob capelle by passers by and local roaches alike. Never mind their 10-30 man gangs!

"What Next?"

Not sure where STIM and ROTE is going from here, there has been some talk of a short field trip. Short bus required, as well as man lub!

No idea where to yet or why, but they are always worth a chuckle, maybe this time we can take a short trip without moving wholesale into the place we are supposedly visiting!

As for Myself, training up the last of my sub-t3 skills for every race, get all my support skills up to 5's, break 80m sp by the end of the year, etc! Battleclinic just bummed me out, telling me I should have 77 mil sp right now, damn-it! Over 70 mil sp now so well on my way to catching up with the BC estimates.

I have done much in eve that I wanted to try and am very happy where I am currently with STIM, lack of playing time, their relaxed attitude and the good fights I manage to get on occasion make eve pretty enjoyable for me!

I will plan on trying to make one gank night this year, but I said that last year too and never made it.

"What will I attempt next?"

Now isn't that a loaded question? I already run sparse L4's on an alt, do exploration and wormhole splunking on Logan, PvP with both accounts. Already tried industry, POS management, large fleet warfare, Piracy, WH living, mining, small gang combat, solo, trading in both meta objects and t2, margin trading, mineral trading, hauling, kinda running out of new things to attempt! I even made my own corp once upon a time and did Merc work, joined an alliance, Ninja salvaged, suicided, claimed space in 0.0, fought overwhelming and underwhelming odds.

I think I will attempt to just have more play time this year without having the wife murder me or explode my computer! We will leave that goal up there and see how it progresses.

"What haven't I done so far in EVE? Was it out fear, funds, or knowledge?"

Wow, well read above, if someone has a suggestion of something I haven't really done, okay I guess I have never been an alliance leader, but being a CEO of a corp pretty much explained how crappy a job that is! Other than that, maybe I should try being anti-pirate (lol), that would almost for sure make me be a pirate again, so Faction Warfare I have never tried, but then...

COME ON IT'S FW!

I support the my Minmatar cause in my own way, spreading the ideals of STIM and ROTE everywhere I fly.

So if anyone has any idea's about something new I have overlooked, I am all ears, until then, I am going to consider most of my bases covered!

"Have I always wanted to start my own corporation, but have never dared doing so?"

I was already a merc CEO once, I keep tossing about the idea of my own corp, meeting my goals in game, but honestly,
1. CBA to recruit people and train them
2. CBA to find a place to live and make people happy in corporation
3. CBA to recruit people!
4. I'm happy not being in a position of command anywhere but the rare times I FC.

Industry is about as boring as it gets for me, not to mention mining (ewww). I'll just stick to plexes and level 4 missions for my money.

"What steps and objectives will I set myself to accomplish in order to reach my ultimate goal for this year?"

Damn you CK, you sound like my boss and my mid year evals! Ultimately I think it would be cool to be a director or at least a more integral part of STIM. However I do not really have the time to invest between my job, wife and 2 dogs to put into the game without neglecting one of the above. Also I doubt my wife, who already refers to EVE as her competition, and near snarls every time she walks by my computer when it is on, would allow me to have enough time to do that. So I think I will stick with the above goal...

That is -> I will attempt to just have more play time this year without having the wife murder me or explode my computer!

And before you ask, no she will not play eve, ever, ever ever...

"EVE is what you make of it. So, what is it going to be for you?"

It's going to be fun and a distraction from the shit that is real life (when real life is shit) Simple but good answer :P

Now to get this thing posted, a little late, but not bad!

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List of Participants:

CrazyKinux's Musing - A beginning is a very delicate time...
The Wandering Druid of Tranquility - Words, words, words…
My God It's Full of Stars - What Now?
The Elitist - Plans for 112yc
Into the unknown with gun and camera - Show me the money
Ecliptic Rift - Enabling the future
Inanity and Doom - New Year's Resolutions, New Eden Style
Break Vol - Blog Banter #14
Guns Ablaze - What Now?
Adventures in Mission Running - The Way Forward
Diary of a Pod Pilot - Things I want to do
Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah - The Year That Will Be
Roc's Ramblings - WordPress ate my blog
Vive Virtual - Frontier Living
A Mule in EVE - Next on the chopping block
Prano's Journey - I Peer Into My Crystal Pod...
Life in Low Sec - Expanding the Franchise
The Light of Stars - Testing the claims of CCP
A Memoir From Space - A New Direction
The Chronofile - Blog Banter 2010
FlashFresh - What now for Flash?
EVE Opportunist - Fyreite in 112
Mike Azariah - Jiorj
Yarrbear Tales - Year in Review
The Independant Analyst - The Year Ahead
The Travels of Black Claw - Where ma I going?
Warp Scrammed - What to do this year
Sered's Lives - Searching for directions in 2010
Finders & Keepers - New Tears, Same Great Taste
More to come...

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

I don't get the attitude of being overly prepared in regards to trying something new in Eve.

Take PvP for example.

I mean sure I look up tactics of flying a new ship when I start flying one, well at least now that they are at least available!

I was reading the blog of Dante Edmundo, specifically, his comments about his pvp alt. He only has enough time to play as a industrialist but wants to train his alt up to be a great pvper skill wise, and then commit him to faction warfare. (He better be joining the minmatar side!) I'm not saying he is a perpetrator of over preparing for something, just made me think of it.

I just never got the idea of training towards something you were not already involved in. It's like mining, sure you start with mining level 1, and then progress from there and see the returns from the new skills as your yield goes up. I find it to be the same thing for pvp.

I'll admit when I first made Logan, I already knew I wanted him to be pvp full time, but the last thing I wanted to do was train him to be a good combat pilot, skill wise, without actually flying in combat! I started in a Rifter, back when they had 4 highs, 2 mids and 3 lows, maybe it was 2 lows, I can't remember... anyways,

I lost about 5 of them in such a short period of time I was pretty sure I was terrible at pvp. At least I tried it first, that rush was insane, even when I wasn't through their shields and they were in my hull! I died but I was out there when my clones were around 200k isk each, and the ships were not much more expensive than that, rifters ftw.

Granted I was playing my alt at the time my main as well... but when I wanted to pvp I tried it with my noob minmatar pilot. I matured quickly, and Logan really took form thanks to the experience of flying in combat, as well as increased skills. Each skill I trained up I could tell the difference in my guns, ship, modules etc... perceived or not, it made me more confident. As did flying the ships I wanted to fly into combat time and again.

I feel that if I had trained up all the skills prior to even trying PvP, and lost as much as I did, I would have just given up. I mean, what's the point if I have all the needed skills and still suck? It would have been much more discouraging. I learnt a ton from all those losses, and at the end of the day, it's just a frigate loss.

SO : To all you future pvpers out there, I say, don't try to "get your skills up to par" before trying pvp! Just dive right in. Sure the sharks are gonna get you(often) before you become one, but at least you are already expecting to do poorly, and are nicely and suddenly shocked when you do get wins, even if you are under skilled, underpowered and underfunded. It makes each fight that much better!

I do not condone shit-fits so at least have your frigate fit to win, there are enough fitting threads out there to do that! Failing that ask me here for a fit for a t1 frig and I will provide one that isn't a shit fit!

Reference Pages

Monday, January 25, 2010

Oh opportunity, is there anything so fickle?

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

We will be victorious.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

EBB14, Fyreite in 112

Tuesday, January 12, 2010